Refilling Cartridges With Bottled Ink

[Archman66]

Anyone refill emptly cartridges from botted ink with a blunt tip syringe? I thought it would be less expensive than buying cartidges, the convenience of cartridges, yet the variety of bottled ink. Any thoughts, advice, suggestions or warnings?

[Charles Rice]

Lots here do that.

[cellmatrix]

yes, if you search around, you will see that this is a very common practice amongst people on FPN. In fact you can buy a blunt tip syringe from some fountain pen vendors, such as Goulet pens, expressly for this purpose. I can think of no warnings, except go for it, it works great.

[Charles Rice]

PS - You might be able to get a syringe for cheap at your local drug store. I bought one last week for 25 cents.

[Archman66]

Do you just use spent cartridges and refill them from the opening in the bottom? You can tell I'm new to fountain pen and this site. Yes, I was looking at Goulet pens and also like that you get small samples of ink to narrow down your bottle purchase options.

[Archman66]

Yes, Walgreens gave me a free dispenser syringe! I don't know if the plastic tip is too wide to fill cartridges, though. It's not as narrow as the metal tips like the syringe at Goulet Pens.

[load81]

I have a warning/advise: Buy a blunt tip one. I have a normal, sharp tip one and i regularly pierce myself.

[Guest Ray Cornett]

I ended up getting a converter and I use a syringe even though I don't need to. But it is the easy way to get a 100% fill each time fast.

[yamaha_no_46]

Do you just use spent cartridges and refill them from the opening in the bottom? You can tell I'm new to fountain pen and this site. Yes, I was looking at Goulet pens and also like that you get small samples of ink to narrow down your bottle purchase options.

 

Yes, empty cartridges are used to refill. Just get a small syringe pack from a drugstore and use it to suck ink from the bottle and fill the empty cartridge. Inject the excess ink in the syringe back to the bottle. Rİnse the syringe with water to clean. And you are done.

 

If you use the same cartridge for a long time the opening may crack or get too wide and leak. They are made of cheap nylon which will wear over time. Then It is time to use another fresh empty cartridge.

[lisadan]

I use syringe all the time. I currently use a blunt tip one, but had used a regular (sharp) one in the past. A clean way to refill your empty cartridges (or converters). Also a way to empty cartridges (if you want to change the ink) and clean dirty cartridges. With a syringe, you get to choose the exact ink you want and decide how much to use. This way you can use your favorite ink with various pens that take different cartridges. All you need is one empty cartridge per pen brand.

[Sasha Royale]

I have a warning/advise: Buy a blunt tip one. I have a normal, sharp tip one and i regularly pierce myself.

 

After a few years, one learns to avoid self-impalement. Big ones work better than small ones. (Veterinarian)

Okay, the blunted one from Goulet is best choice. Mine is a surgical syringe with 3.0 cc capacity and a

20 gauge needle. Yes, it hurts like the dickens !

 

1. Inserting the needle deep into the cartridge and injecting a strong stream of water, will flush out old ink.

2. Inserting the needle deep into the cartridge and injecting a strong stream of air, will blast out remaining water.

and dry the cartridge.

3. Inject ink very slowly, OR ELSE . . . . . . .

 

Ink is cheap.

[Sinistral1]

You asked if you fill the cartridge from the bottom. You don't. Since the cartridge has already been punctured at the top when it was used, it's into this existing hole that you will put the needle into for flushing and refilling with new ink. Poking a hole in the bottom would mean having two holes in the cartridge, and ink in lots of places you don't want it to be.

[SallyLyn]

I've even mixed inks in a cartridge. May not be the most scientific or exact method, but when wanting to use a mix it works good enough. As someone else mentioned, put ink into the cartridge slowly. Often a bubble will form over the opening and make a mess. The cartridge needs to let air out as the ink comes in.

[ac12]

If they make a converter for your pen, I recommend that you get one. In the long term, it is the easiest way to use bottle ink.

However, if max load of ink is a concern, then you need to refill a cartridge. The converter mechanism takes space that could be use to hold more ink.

 

If they do NOT make a converter for your pen, or your pen is such that a converter will not fit, then refilling the cartridge is the only option. I have a couple pens that there are no converters for, so I have to refill the cartridge.

 

BUT, when refilling a cartridge, if you load the pen immediately it is OK.

The problem becomes when you want to store the refilled cartridge for a period of time. Example as a spare cartridge of ink in your school bag. You need to have a way to SEAL the cartridge so that you do not have a mess of ink in your bag. And that seal needs to be easily removed when you change cartridges in your pen.

Edited April 5, 2014 by ac12

[Pentulant]

Heed their warnings.

 

http://instagram.com/p/mWXHE6G2W8/

[Skyppere]

I refill carts from time to time and like I said elsewhere, sometimes I fill them with water. If you do this and don't flush the pen you get an extra cart/converter's worth of ink out of it! The result isn't quite as saturated as the original but sometimes Ilke a pastel.

skyppere

[Charles Rice]

I have syringes going all the way from .5ml to 60+ ml. No blunt needles. The 5ml size seems about right for me. And no, I don't have any pens that need the 60ml syringe though it is handy if I want to transfer from one bottle to another.

 

About a month ago I took my wife in for a routine exam. I asked the nurse if they had any syringes she could give me and she gave me three - gratis. I did show her my fountain pens when I asked.

 

Sometimes I do use a syringe to fill a converter. Some of my converters are fussy about sucking in ink.

[Ink Stained Wretch]

I'll add to the chorus here agreeing that refilling cartridges is a great endeavor. I've been doing it for 10+ years and I can put any bottled ink into any of my cc pens.

 

Most of my pens are cc fillers and I get a lot of practice. Someone from here even did a video on YouTube about refilling cartridges. You'll see the bubble issue mentioned there.

 

You can also mix inks in a cartridge, if the syringes are graduated well enough. That way you can see if you like a particular ink mixture enough to want to mix up a larger batch of it, and if you don't you'll have only a small amount of the mixture you don't like.

 

Of course bottled ink is far more economical than ink that comes in cartridges . As for cartridges to fill, when I started this I wanted more than the few empty ones I had around so I bought some watery, no-name ink in cartridges on e-Bay for a very low price and used those up so that I had lots of cartridges that I could refill. They do wear out over time, but IME they last for quite a while before that happens.

 

Good luck with refilling cartridges.

 

[wvbeetlebug]

Absolutely. I find that this is the easier way to fill converters especially. I'm a klutz and twisting that little knob whilst hovering over a bottle of ink probably is not a grand idea.

 

I don't even bother blunting the needle although I understand that in some parts you may find them already blunted.

[_Stormin_]

I haven't bought a cartridge in years. Still have ones that I am refilling with various inks from syringes for pens that don't have an available converter...